I FULLY understood why Owen Coyle lost his rag with Mark Clattenburg for disallowing that perfectly good goal Kevin Davies scored on Saturday.

And I wasn’t surprised that, yet again, that particular referee was the centre of attention, because I’m afraid that is what he likes.

That was Mark Clattenburg all over on Saturday.

He thinks he is a big personality in the game — and that’s his problem. He seems to think he’s the best referee in the world and gives the impression that he thinks he is bigger than the game itself.

Yet he repeatedly makes mistakes and he certainly dropped a clanger on Saturday that cost us two important points because, for me, there was nothing wrong with Kevin’s goal.

The game was scrappy game not the best of entertainment, but we were the better side and deserved all three points.

We dominated them in the second half and I can’t remember them having any decent scoring chances, which was a tribute to the way we defended.

Jussi Jaaskelainen must have been delighted with that aspect of the game — a third clean sheet in the last four games — and that should keep his confidence high.

That was the big positive to take out of the game but the big blow was the news that Gary Cahill will be missing for quite some time.

That’s a serious setback for the team and for the lad himself because he’s been outstanding since he joined the club two years ago and had earned himself an outside chance of making the England squad for this summer’s World Cup - not that that was a priority for him.

Gary has his international ambitions but that would only ever have been at the back of his mind. His top priority is to continue his improvement with Bolton — for the good of the club — and that’s something that’s going to have to be put on the back burner for a few weeks.

Coming on the back of Ivan Klasnic’s injury, it’s causing a few problems for Owen Coyle as he gets his teeth into his new job. I spoke last week about it being time we got the rub of the green but it seems we’re going to have to make our own luck.

Thankfully, Coyley’s not the kind of man to dwell on problems. Instead he’ll see this as an opportunity to give others a chance and I can say with a degree of confidence that he will make sure the players he brings in will feel special and will be up for the challenge.

That’s one of his strongest characteristics.